There are live/work lofts where maybe you have a home office and then there are live/work lofts like this one at 1124 N. Wood in West Town.

At 4800 square feet, it has authentic brick and wide open spaces. It even has a pulley elevator.

The listing says it is now zoned residential but the commercial element is grandfathered in. It is currently being used for a T-shirt printing business but has been a spring factory and an old distillery.

It has central air, but no deeded parking.

What would you do with all that space?

Tim Stassi at Dwell One Realty has the listing (Dwell One requires registration to see the listing). See more pictures here.

Unit #1: 4800 square feet, 1 bath

Sold in March 2006 for $415,000

Currently listed for $500,000

Taxes of $3465

Central Air

Basement

Street parking only

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“Don’t rip the price, this is some hipster’s retirement package before he moves to NW indiana”

Limited digging indicated may have been a SHE — t-shirt company called “ultra cool ultra violet” — t-shirts that change color when exposed to sunlight. I loved my HYPERCOLOR t-shirt in 1991… Shocking that the concept didn’t fly.

But what the seller doesn’t seem to get is that the people who need something like this are the people least likely to be able to afford anything like $500K. Those people are artists working in media that require a lot of space.

Sometime very soon, the conventional white-collar middle-class is going to get very tired of living with the discomfort and monster heat bills that come with oversized lofts with their 14′ ceilings and undivided spaces and lack of common creature comforts, not to mention their core ugliness. These folks will go back to living in fully finished houses and apartments with good insulation, staircases that someone who isn’t young and acrobatic can negotiate, ceiling heights that are appropriate for escalating fuel costs, cozy decorative details, divided spaces, and nice finishes.

Places like this will once more become CHEAP work-live spaces for the artists and craftspeople and musicians and small manufacturers who really need them.

Yanking your chain. The overhead door looks to be upstairs to me, based on the ceiling height. And, if it does lead outside, it appears (from Streetview) to access a (v.small) loading dock area on the side–which is a solid 20′ east of the alley–next to what looks to me to be an asphalted piece of parking area b/t the sidewalk and the street–note the car parked there in the exterior photo.

Laura: “the people who need something like this are the people least likely to be able to afford anything like $500K.”

Problem is, in part, the g’fathered commercial zoning. Depending on which B zone it has, one could operate a retail biz here, which gives it a considerably greater value than as a pure residence (even if it would still be a live/work space).

Excellent points Laura but to hipsters this place is cool & I know to hipsters that outweighs any & all economic &practical considerations. Same reason they wear tight jeans 2 sizes too small & ridiculous red socks & pay 3 bucks for a PBR.

Yeah, well the hipsters don’t have this kind of money anymore. Back in my own “hipster” era, when lofts were first becoming cool, we cool young people were strictly limited in how much economic damage we could do ourselves in pursuit of the Cool, by an extremely stodgy banking & mortgage industry.

It may get that way again. It might now be just a little more difficult to get a jumbo loan for an unconventional space in a really dodgy neighborhood for folks who have a combined household income of maybe $80K, than it may have been C. 2006.

It’s funny you say that – I have a wife and 2 kids, and we would at least give this serious consideration if we hadn’t just moved. On the other hand we’ve done gut rehabs before and I have no problem with needing to put in rooms, running plumbing & electric, redoing the kitchen, etc – not everyone will want to do that.

Interssting unit. What I have trouble understanding is why someone would pay the $100 sq ft for the 2500 +/- raw space in the basement. Paying around $100 sq ft for 1st floor raw space in that area is not that far off the mark. It would need someone with a creative mind, and enough money for a gut rehab, to bring it back to a prime time living space.

Neighborhood is still pretty good for young transient post college first time renters. Fixing it up to that standard and renting it out to them is a possible option. For moderate investment it could be changed to a 4 or 5 bedroom open party like space with 2 baths that rented for 3500-4000 per month. If bought at 250K to 300K this is an interesting project. At 500K no way!

BTW I just opened the 12/4 to 1/8 Com Ed bill for my 2200 sq ft authentic brick and timber loft. Understand that this building has one foot thick brick walls with little other insulation and 14 foot timber ceilings. The total cost to heat was $232.14 I’m not suggesting it is great but I do have friends who pay higher bills to heat older homes built with little insulation.

I still like the beauty of the space and am willing to pay a premium for the flexibility this unit offers. We had 43 people here for Christmas dinner and had more than enough room to enjoy. Try that with your cut up 2200 sq ft 3 bed 2 bath home.